Senior diplomats from Cuba and the U.S. meet in the State Department

Under Secretary of State for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson, met
Thursday in Washington with the director of the North Division of
the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Josefina Vidal America, confirmed the
State Department .

The two governments have already publicly expressed interest in
normalizing relations in a gradual process, but for the moment
have not seen concrete steps.

A spokesman for the U.S. Chancellery merely confirmed that the
meeting between diplomatic occurred in the morning , but neither
side disclosed the contents of the meeting.

United States and Cuba maintain regular contacts at the technical
level to discuss specific issues such as immigration laws and
postal activities, but these are not comparable to Vidal ‘s visit
to Washington, which is a high-level diplomatic dialogue .

Since November last year, the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington lacks banking services, as U.S. or foreign banks
operating in the United States refuses to accept the management
of their accounts because of the legislation .

The State Department has said on several occasions that it was
helping the Cuban delegation to find a bank to manage their
accounts, but at the moment the problem remains unresolved.

It is unknown whether Vidal ‘s visit to Jacobson served to
address this issue or the situation of American Alan Gross was
arrested in Cuba since 2009 for distributing telecommunications
equipment that the Havana government considered non-commercial .
Washington has publicly called for Cuba to release Gross ” for
humanitarian reasons” .

The Cuban government has reiterated its readiness to conduct ”
high-level contacts ” to address the situation of Gross and three
Cuban agents arrested in U.S. for spying on radical members of
the Cuban -American community .
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EL NUEVO HERALD
Publicado el jueves 15 de mayo del 2014
Diplomáticos de alto nivel de Cuba y EEUU se reúnen en el
Departamento de Estado